The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-04-21
Especial Correspondence. |

Especial Correspondence
PARIS, Feb. 2S.-In the last number of The
Nouvelle Revue Claude Vento has many in
teresting things to tell about Lady Caithness,
better known as the Duchesse de Pomar, and
still better known as the chief of the French
Theosophsts. What have to say in this
letter is taken chiefly from this article in the
Paris periodical.
The duchess spends the winter at Nice.
where she lives i'll fine style, and is an &C
knowledged leader in society A few DAYS
ago she gave there grand fancy dress ball.
She comes up to Paris in the spring and
throws open her elegant house, the Hotel
Pozzo di Borgo, where she entertains with a
lavish hand. Lady CaithneSs is not only an
accomplished grand dame, knowing how to
receive and be the equal of the most high
born of the European nobility, but she is also
woman OF strong intellectual power, of
wide reading and learning, editor of a maya
zine and the author of several books Although
she enjoys the society of fashionable people,
she prefers intercourse with the learned and
while her guests are dancing the hostess is
often found in a secluded nook discussing the
most abstruse principles of Buddhism with
some simple scholar.
parsonage: Maria Mariategui, Duchesse de
Pomar, has in her veins the blood of Castillo
and England. She was born at Madrid, and
her mother Mme Mariategui, was the
daughter of the younger brother of the Mar
quis of Northampton. This mother married
Catholic and inculcated the same religion on
her only daughter the subject of this sketch,
who was beautiful and interesting girl.
endowed with the intellectual force of English
womanhood and the graces of Andalusia.
She married Gen. Count de Pomar, who
was much older than herself. The union,
which was happy one, was broken in few
years by the death of her husband
By this marriage Nine. de Pomar became
the owner Of some fine plantations in Cuba,
and she frequently crossed the ocean to
Havana During one of her soiourns in the
"Pearl of the Antilles" an incident happened
that showed the wonderful personal bravery
OF the duchess. She was giving grand din
her party on certain occasion when, being
informed by her servants that body of re-
bellious negroes with arms in their bands
were marching to attack the mansion, she
Immediately arose from the table, begged
her guests to excuse her and declared that
she would go alone and put an end to the re-
volt. All attempts to dissuade her from this
purpose were vain. She did not wait even to
change her robe, but in full evening dress,
low neck and short sleeves, ablaze with dia-
monds, started off on foot toward the in
furiated slaves. When she met them the
duchess exclaimed i'll loud and commanding
voice: "Kneel and ask pardon" Either her
assured manner or the magnificence of her at
tire and personal beauty-probably both
had the desired effect on the susceptible and
Superstitious negroes. They thought that
some supernatural being stood before them,
and all Immediately threw themselves at her
feet. The brave woman then spoke to them
in kindly manner They consented to obey
her, and she led them back to the mansion,
where she was welcomed by the whole house
hold as a protector and savior.
l have just spoken of the rich Jewels of
Nine. de Pomar, which are fortune in
themselves. The father collected them for his
daughter during his journeys through South
America, and many richer ones were added
on her marriage day. Several of these Jewels
are famous throughout Europe and there are
few royal princeSses who can make O finer
display than the Duchess de Pomar when she
chooses to do so-which happens very rarely,
however, as she considers these precious stones
not as so many ornaments, but as symbolic of
the worlds SOUL In her eyes they are tails
mans and fetiches-a strange fancy that
comes of her theosophic studies.
After the death of her first husband she
married Lord James Sinclair, chief of the
clan of Sinclair and fourteenth earl of CATH
ness Just as Gen. De Pomar had strong
taste for every thing relating to war and
military affairs, so Lord Caithness had a
thirst for the practical science. One day he
was visiting ribbon factory when the ma
chinery suddenly came to q stand still, and
as the engineer was absent nobody knew how
to start it going again. Lord Caithness Of
fered to repair the damage He Immediately
set to work. labored all night, and when the
hands came to the factory in the
morning they found all in order and
resumed their occupations. Lord Caithness
was the inventor of mariners
compass that was adopted by the English
navy, and he is said to have been more proud
of this honor than of all the great deeds Of
his ancestors He often crossed the ocean to
look after the interests of his wife at Havana.
and it was on one of these voyages he fell i'll
and died at New York. Lady Caithness had
his body brought back to Europe and laid to
rest, according to his desire, in the roval
chapel at Holyrood, not far from the tomb
of Mary Queen of Scots, who was one of his
idols
Lady Caithness' religious ideas are not less
remarkable than her other characteristics.
She is, as | tave already said, theosopbist.
and believes that the great universal soul is
subdivided into innumerable fragments, per-
feet in themselves, one of which is found in
each human being, forming the human soul.
Again, each one Of these fragments is under
the influence of some special governing spirit
to which it is attracted by ties of affection.
Thus she declares thather soul is controlled bv
that OF Mary Queen Of Scots, and curiousy
enough, Lady Caithness resembles the mar
tyred Mary Stuart in feature and mind. She
pretends to have had a mysterious interview
with the queen amidst the ruins of Holyrood.
and that she is now in constant communion
ton with her. Here Lady Caithness allies
herself with modern spiritualism although
fervent adept of theosophy, which states its
aim to be 'tbe study Of different forms of
philosophy and religion without adopting any
special belief" As the head of the Paris
Theosophic society, she is constantly enter
tanning at her house whole delegations of
Brahmins, from whom she is said to receive
most extraordinary revelations about the oc-
cult world
The Duchess de Pomar-for this is the
name that she prefers to be known by in
theosophic circles-is no ordinary medium.